Cuaxochtli

[Yukitaka Inoue Okubo]

Michael,

I agree with you in many points.
I started with "cuaxochtli", form which appears in Molina, but the colonial 
documents I've been reading has many variations. Just some examples:
quaxochitl, quaxochitli, quacxotli, quachxotli, quacxochi
These documents generally have many orthografic problems.

On the other hand, the meaning of "boundery marker (at least of stone)" does 
not seem to me very true, because they use the Spanish word "mojon" to refer 
to "stone-boundary markers".

Yukitaka





----- Original Message ----- 
From: <mmccaffe at INDIANA.EDU>
To: <NAHUAT-L at LISTS.UMN.EDU>
Sent: Monday, February 20, 2006 8:29 PM
Subject: Re: Cuaxochtli


> I'd like to propose that we turn around 180 degrees again and consider 
> cuaxoch-
> a **morpheme** meaning "boundary marker".
>
> 1) a "ditch" is not a boundary marker. what we are talking about here is 
> more
> than like a stone...a series of stones....or just one stone. Not a ditch
> around a house.
>
> 2) the cuauhuitl + xoch- suggestion can only be off the mark, given that 
> the
> chroniclers were very careful about writing "u". In other words, we do not
> have anywhere "cuauhxochtli"...and we should have, if cuahuitl were the
> initial morpheme of this term.
>
> 3) If we cut this cuaxochtli into two parts, where one is cuaitl 'head', 
> what
> is *xochtli? There is no *xochtli in the Florentine or Molina.
>
> 4) A two-syllable morpheme is certainly not uncommon for Nahuatl.
>
> Michael
>
>
> Quoting Yukitaka Inoue Okubo <takaio at PO.AIANET.NE.JP>:
>
>> Thank you for many suggestions.
>> I'd like to have just one question for John.
>> "Axochtli" (for ditch) in Northern Veracruz is related to flower 
>> planting?
>> For example, there are many flower field, or sometimes they plant flowers
>> around their houses?
>> It seems interesting to think if "xochtli" (of "axochtli") just refer to 
>> the
>>
>> boundary without relating to flowers, or if it has something to do with
>> "flower".
>>
>> Yukitaka
>> takaio at po.aianet.ne.jp
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> ----- Original Message ----- 
>> From: <idiez at MAC.COM>
>> To: <NAHUAT-L at LISTS.UMN.EDU>
>> Sent: Saturday, February 18, 2006 7:12 AM
>> Subject: Re: Cuaxochtli
>>
>>
>> I asked my students today if they have heard of
>> cua/cuauh-xochitl/xochtli/xochihtli. First they said "cuauhxochitl",
>> "flor de árbol", but then someone came up with the word "axochtli". It
>> contains the -xochtli portion given at the beginning of this
>> discussion, which allows us to depart from "flower".  Anyway in
>> Northern Veracruz "axochtli" is a canal where water flows: it can
>> either be an irrigation ditch in a field, or the drainage ditch (only
>> about 4 or 5 inches wide and maybe 2 inches deep) which runs along the
>> side of a house. Now for speculation: both presumably run along the
>> side of something (a field or a house) and thus might refer to a
>> boundary. Now, how does "cuahuitl" fit into this?
>> John
>>
>> John Sullivan, Ph.D.
>> Profesor de lengua y cultura nahua
>> Unidad Académica de Idiomas
>> Universidad Autónoma de Zacatecas
>> Director
>> Instituto de Docencia e Investigación Etnológica de Zacatecas, A.C.
>> Tacuba 152, int. 47
>> Centro Histórico
>> Zacatecas, Zac. 98000
>> México
>> Oficina: +52 (492) 925-3415
>> Fax: +52 (492) 925-3416
>> Domicilio: +52 (492) 768-6048
>> Celular: +52 (492) 544-5985
>> idiez at mac.com
>> www.idiez.org.mx
>>
>> On Feb 17, 2006, at 2:58 PM, John F. Schwaller wrote:
>>
>> > Date: Fri, 17 Feb 2006 12:06:48 -0800
>> > Subject: Cuaxochtli
>> > From: Karen Dakin <dakin at SERVIDOR.UNAM.MX>
>> > To: <NAHUAT-L-request at LISTS.UMN.EDU>
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > I remember hearing a discussion of cuaxochtli among ethnohistorians in
>> > Mexico, and another possibility noted was that it is from cua-(witl)
>> > 'tree'
>> > plus xoch- 'flower', because flowering trees were (and possibly still 
>> > are)
>> > boundary markers at times, since they are easily distinguished, at 
>> > least
>> > during the time they bloom.
>> >
>> > Karen Dakin
>> >
>> John Sullivan, Ph.D.
>> Profesor de lengua y cultura nahua
>> Unidad Académica de Idiomas
>> Universidad Autónoma de Zacatecas
>> Director
>> Instituto de Docencia e Investigación Etnológica de Zacatecas, A.C.
>> Tacuba 152, int. 47
>> Centro Histórico
>> Zacatecas, Zac. 98000
>> México
>> Oficina: +52 (492) 925-3415
>> Fax: +52 (492) 925-3416
>> Domicilio: +52 (492) 768-6048
>> Celular: +52 (492) 544-5985
>> idiez at mac.com
>> www.idiez.org.mx
>>
>
>